Weekend Update

As the ECW project continues apace, I've also finally, FINALLY, played my first game of Art De La Guerre (aka ADLG), that wonder of the community who play with 15mm figures that have pointy sticks and stabby-stabby things for weapons. 

I've been interested in playing ADLG for a couple of years or so, but the chance to buy the rulebook at Historicon, coupled with a very off-the-cuff purchase of a friend's unpainted Bactrian Greek army at OttoCon, sealed the proverbial deal. 

Last Wednesday night, I was at the RAP Gamers with John and Steve on one side of the table, and I was paired with Phil, yes THAT Phil, on the other side. 

Dirty Tuaregs on camels on the left and a complicated set of Byzantines on the right

I was given command of the left hand side of the board with strict orders not to, ummm, screw up too badly. Since John is also a new player, but one who has survived multiple thrashings, I figured we were pretty well equal. 

Lovely armoured cavalry and spear pushers with some lads swinging axes. What could possibly go wrong? (Hint: that would be me having to roll dice...)

Annnnnnd.....that didn't go so well for me...see the above picture...

There was this verse from a Johnny Horton song about there "not being so many as they were a while ago" that kept playing in my head as a rolled four consecutive "1's" on a single D6 in one particular turn...ummm, NOT what one should do in this game. 

 Bruce having joined us due to reports of a gap in the space-dice time continuum, whereby I broke something with by ghastly rolling

In theory, the Tuaregs, and their bloody camels, were supposed to destroy themselves attacking us clever Byzantines as we stood against their attack. While Phil and Steve explained the rules as we went along, and there was much jocularity, my first turn of good dice rolls turned out to be my last, and I struggled with the normal mathematical odds for rolling 5's and 6's on a single D6. 

Bags of fun, though, and I am eagerly awaiting next Wednesday where we should see Normans versus Sicilians. I am trying to clear the painting table of projects, so I can get back to my Bactrian Greeks, as well as an Italian Condotta army, and half of a Seljuk Turk army....just need to get t'other half, eh? 

And the ECW project still comes together. This week saw one unit of dragoons completed, along with two units of horse and three of foot that came painted and ready to be recycled. 

Garish blues they may be, I wasn't about to strip and repaint them. 

Next weekend is FALL-IN, then I'll be off to Vermont for a couple of weeks of Government sponsored shenanigans. Hopefully there will be time to paint and post. 

More anon. 

Feeling.....Sheep-ish

Things have been quite busy around the Duchy as autumn continues to turn blustery and chilly. The ECW Upcycle Project continues apace, with a number of units completed and several more in the queue. As we go along, it is now time to look at adding some fun bits and bobs. 

Hence why I'm painting sheep.

Somehow, in my brain, it makes sense to have sheep as both obstacles and objectives. So, a trip to the Noble Knight Games website, and 40-something sheep were soon on their way to the Duchy. 

They will play a part in my ECW games, as well as in my Jacobite Rebellion project and my Irish War of Independence project as well. One might have the cheek to even call them "battlesheep" as they swan about the pastures of the games. 

One might. Ahem. Or not. 

The latest unit to join the ECW family project is a red coated one.

I rather like how they turned out, particularly as the one red colour I used washed out against the grey Gesso primer. But the soft tone wash muddied it up a bit and the effect is quite nice to my eyes. 

Ah well. Back to finishing off painting more sheep and a couple of odds and ends ECW figures. 

Chat GPT Uniforms and More ECW Figures

I've watched a number of fellow bloggers talk about the benefits and the pitfalls of using AI in the hobby. After my most recent course, where AI was a popular topic, I decided to give it a go, with creating some uniforms for my Duchy of Arancia Not-Italian Napoleonic Imagi-Nation project. 

I asked for a half a dozen infantry regiments to be created and for uniforms and colours for those regiments in the French model, but not in French colours. I already have two regiments made up for this project, so it's really not something I was really taking too seriously. But I do have more figures awaiting their paint jobs. 

This is what the AI generated for me:

A rather fetching set of uniforms, really. Plus it added a few details about the regiments to give me a little back story for each unit. I'm looking to do the same for some cavalry units and the usual "artillery, engineers, and train" elements as well. 

In addition to virtual painting, I've managed to finish another regiment of foot for my ECW project. 

I like the way this project is progressing. I'm waiting for a few more pikemen to come in, in order to finish three more regiments. Even with the pikemen enroute, I still have a number of units queued up to be finished. 

Hopefully this weekend will see a few more figures added to the finished part of the collection. 

Weekend Update

I don't know where I acquired a couple of plastic shoeboxes worth of English Civil War, mostly a variety of cavalry. I had some Old Glory infantry figures, both pike and shot, but no cavalry or artillery, which is probably why I bought this lot. Later on, I sold of a large batch of figures, so the odds and sods are what's left. And an ugly lot they are indeed. 

But a drive to clean the Game Room, coupled with some fellow bloggers' projects, and my pursuit of actually playing games, not just painting figures, led me to supercharge the ECW project. 

Generic units, 10 foot on a base, 4 horse, and three foot with one mounted for a dragoon unit. 

I suppose I need to get a couple of guns, at some point. 

Well, so far, this is what I've managed to finish. These fellas are all ready to slap on a 4" by 3" base. 

These aren't going to win any awards. Block painted with craft paints and some Vallejo colours. Washed with Army Painter Soft Tone. Sealed with brush on matte finish. 

But they are done. And that's the point. 

My project is looking like it will have something along the lines of 6-8 units of horse, 4-6 units of dragoons, and 8 units of foot. I would like to maybe extend it to 12 units of foot, no more. 

A couple of guns for each side, maybe a few single mounted officers with a couple of senior commanders for each side. And a couple of wagons for each side to raid. 

I also have a number of sheep for this project. Because. But the sheep are multi-functional. They play as sheep for my 1798 Irish Rebellion, my Project 1745, and my Irish Civil War project, both as obstacles and as Victory Conditions. After all, Victory starts with ewe... 

But I digress...

Weekend Update

The fair weather continues here in the Duchy. Most unusual for October, but I am not going to complain. Although the lack of rain is not so good. 

This past weekend saw me head up to Hazleton to participate in a WW2 tactical event. This event is held twice a year. I was unable to make the Spring event, but very happy to be able to come up for this one. 

We had 11 of us in the British/Canadian Paras, with three Jeeps. There were also Americans and Russians with a variety of trucks, jeeps, and one anti-tank gun. 

There were a metric tonne of Germans...who brought four half-tracks, two tanks, and a STUG... We may as well have brought the proverbial knife to a gunfight... but it was a lot of fun anyway. 

Our side of the Allied camp. My new tent (game changer!!!) is the second from the left

Justin and I in his jeep

Jeeps Away! It is a bit like playing Rat Patrol, honestly, but it's buckets of fun

The Germans brought this STUG. It broke down immediately and spent the weekend in this very spot. Thankfully for us...

Our perennial nemesis...these guys and their Sid Kafizz. Good bunch of guys, but they are a pain to fight and the MG42 makes them dangerous. 

Overall, it was a great series of small skirmishes. I managed some of the cooking duties, but found a kindred cook in Andy from the British Paras. We swopped contact info so we'll be better able to coordinate food prep. I picked up my new (old) tent from Shannon and now I've got something I can stand up in, instead of crawling in and out of my two-man tent. With a nice cot and sleeping bag, it was a great shanty, even if it was cold and damp at night. 

I'm tired, various body parts ache, and it's time to get back to schoolwork and get ready for the work week ahead. 

More anon. 

A Scandihooligan Interlude

Last year, Sandy, Morgan and I were able to visit Norway and see our dear friend Ellen and her daughter Lena in Oslo. Part of my heritage are some of my ancestors came from Sweden and it has always been a friendly joke between Ellen and myself. 

This weekend, Sandy and I decided to go down to Wilmington, Delaware and visit the Kalmar Nykel, which is a reconstruction of one of the vessels that landed in what is now Wilmington in 1638, carrying the first settlers for Nya Svierge, or New Sweden. The colony only lasted until 1655, when the Dutch came and took over the place. But the Swedish influence on the area, including a swath of land all the way up to Philadelphia is still extant, especially in the Swedish Lutheran churches. 

The visitor center for the Old Swedes Historic Site is a house moved down from Delaware County that was built after the colony was taken over by the Dutch, but in the old Swedish style. 

The altar inside Old Swedes Church. Founded in 1698, it is still an active church. 

Erik Bjork was the lead minister from the founding and for many years after

An outside view of Old Swedes Church

A monument at Fort Christina, well, the location where it stood. A stone's throw from Old Swedes Church, it was erected in 1938 by the Swedish government in honour of the founding of the colony. 

Where the less than formidable Fort Christina was built... 

An artist's impression of how the fort might have appeared....hmmm....not that hard to build...

Inside the Copeland Center, there is a painting by Patrick O'Brian of the Kalmar Nykel which tells of its fate off of Scotland during the First Anglo-Dutch War. 

 

A depiction of the Nya Sveirge colony. 

And the Kalmar Nykel herself. Maybe next time, I'll be able to check her out. 

But in the meantime...maybe there's something I could paint up between the Dutch, the Swedes, and maybe some First Nations or Pirate marauders...hmmm.... 

The Copeland Marine Center was open, but the vessel was getting ready for some kind of gala event, so she wasn't open for tours. Overall, it was a very interesting time. Again, another historical gem hidden right in plain sight. 

After our wandering, we drove up to Kennett Square and enjoyed a wonderful late lunch at Emis Cafe. 

Overall, just a grand day out. 

Weekend Update

As another lovely weekend comes to a close here in the Duchy, it seems time for a bit of reflection. 

It was rather nice to get out and about yesterday even if that meant missing the weekly VWC meeting and not getting up to Luzerne County to roll dice and push lead. It was also the Del-Val Gamers' Game Day and I chose not to go there either. 

Instead, Sandy and I went to Baldwin's Book Barn in Chester County. Baldwin's is built into an old dairy barn that was constructed in 1822. It's now a five-story, so to speak, bookstore with over 300,000 old, rare, and contemporary books for sale. It's amazing. 

Of course, I found something...

After visiting Baldwin's, we headed off to Skippack Village to visit a specialty cheese shop and have lunch. There were two cheeses we were especially looking for, more Norwegian brown cheese and some taleggio cheese, which is often called the Italian brie. Delicious stuff.  

Today, after doing some of my schoolwork, I found myself with a half an hour to kill before a Zoom call, so I thought I would pop onto ChatGPT (we have been talking a great deal about AI in my one Army class) and decided to ask for a background for a fictional English Civil War campaign in a fictional county. I was prompted to do this after visiting one of my usual blog haunts and reading several of the owner's posts about the English Civil War. 

I liked how he based his figures, one large 4-inch by 3-inch base for a unit of infantry or cavalry. Anyway, it made me think and then I got out another Abandoned Project from the Pile of Shame....

After noodling around with some of the figures, I decided to pop down to the local Home Depot to get a broom for suitable pikes, since they are bendy and less prone to breakage and wounding than metal pikes. 

Hmmm.....maybe if I can find another loose figure, 10 foot to a base, make one of the pikemen into a standard bearer... Hmmm....

Well, I think there might be another project to clean up and I think I have found the motivation to do so...wasn't there a Pike and Shot variant of The Portable Wargame? Why, yes, indeed, there was....

More anon.